Taking another significant leap to make quality education affordable and accessible, upGrad, Asia’s higher edtech major, has announced the formation of its philanthropic and not-for-profit division called upGrad Foundation.
“LifeLongLearning, upskilling, and career enhancements can no longer be the right of only those who can afford it. Online learning has changed the perspective of all working professionals around the world and how they look at career improvements. Therefore, upGrad Foundation wants to take this theme of affordability, accessibility, and awareness to all who have growing aspirations and the Foundation will help adopt, guide and train, at scale. We would like to see teachers, coaches and a million learners who cannot afford or deserve excellence to benefit from the upGrad Foundation in the next decade,” said Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson and Co-Founder, upGrad.
The objectives and goals of this not-for-profit foundation are wide and include teachers’ training, mentoring and coaching, career guidance, scholarships, internships, and online student exchange programmes. With the aim to build the largest pro-bono buddy, mentor platform and program portfolio in the world, the initial monetary commitment by upGrad is just a beginning while the Foundation looks at roping in donors and corporates to grant schemes in the near future while scaling its impact and reach.
The Foundation will focus on all working professionals including first-generation learners, women coming back to the workforce, and many in public services or the Armed Forces.
“Online education has given an optionality and choice to millions to pursue their ambitions and in many ways democratised LifeLongLearning. Therefore, we see the Foundation as one more step in upGrad’s vision of impacting careers of millions”, concluded Mayank Kumar, Co-founder and MD, upGrad.